Record Breaking Temperature In Wichita Falls & All Over Texas

This morning CNN online had an article titled "Here are some US cities that set records Tuesday as temperatures soared to as high as 115 degrees".

I clicked the link thinking I was going to see record high temperatures set all over the U.S.

Instead the record breaking temperatures were mostly in Texas, with a couple in Oklahoma.

With the HOTTEST record breaker being the town I am in, Wichita Falls, which sizzled to 115 yesterday.

I had thought our high here yesterday was 113, and said as much to a friend from high school who was visiting Tonasket in Eastern Washington and had posted on Facebook how he was on the edge of suffering heatstroke due to the temperature being 90.

I proceeded to inform this person that he was a temperature baby.

Today is scheduled to be cooler, a predicted high of only 107, with a chance of some rain and thunderstorming. 

During yesterday's sizzler a wildfire erupted just out of the eastern border of Wichita Falls. The wildfire forced the closure of Highway 287, the freeway route between Wichita Falls and DFW. 

I do not think I have ever been so eager for summer to come to its end as I am currently.

From the CNN article...

Here are some US cities that set records Tuesday as temperatures soared to as high as 115 degrees--

Here are some of the record highs for July 19 that were set in Texas and Oklahoma:

• Wichita Falls, Texas: 115, breaking a record of 112 set in 2018.

• Borger, Texas: 111, breaking a record of 109 set in 2018.

• Abilene, Texas: 110, breaking a record of 108 set in 1936.

• Oklahoma City: 110, breaking a record of 109 set in 1936.

• Amarillo, Texas: 108, breaking a record of 105 set in 2018.

• San Angelo, Texas: 108, tying a record set in 2018.

• El Paso, Texas: 107, breaking a record of 105 set in 1980.

• Camp Mabry in Austin, Texas: 106, breaking a record of 105 from 1914, 1923 and 1951.

• Midland International Air & Space Port in Midland, Texas: 105, tying a record from 1981 and 2018.

• Houston: 100, tying a record set in 2000.

And there is this I saw a few minutes ago on Facebook. This version has the Wichita Falls temperature record being 113...

A Cold Front Arrives For The Last Day Of September & The First Day Of The State Fair Of Texas

As you can see in the picture the sun has begun its pre-dawn sky glowing process on this last day of September.

With today being Friday, September 30, over at Fair Park, in Dallas, the State Fair of Texas begins. That means I have til October 23 to make it over to Dallas for the state fair.

Had the State Fair of Texas opened yesterday it would have been one HOT first day of the state fair.

Yesterday we hit 100 for the 71st time in 2011, breaking the temperature record for September 29, which had been 99 degrees, set over a half century ago, in 1953. Yesterday was also the 4th latest 100 degree day. The latest it has ever reached 100 in this parched part of the planet was on October 3 of 1951.

Last night this parched part of the planet also had a thunderstorm. I saw a lot of lightning strikes and heard a lot of thunder rolling, but not much rain fell. Maybe more rain fell in other locations.

Last night's thunderstorm brought in a cold front, dropping the temperature last night. The lows for the next few days are scheduled to be in the 50s.

The sun is now providing sufficient illumination to allow me to find my way to the pool without needing a flashlight. So, I'm going swimming now.

The 2nd Friday Of September Cooling Off From The HOTTEST 3 Months In American History

As you can sort of see, via the view from my outer world patio viewing platform, the sun and I got up about the same time on this second Friday of September.

I had no windows open overnight. No A/C running. No ceiling fan spinning. And yet I had a perfectly pleasant night's sleep.

It is currently only 66 degrees, heading to a high 22 degrees warmer.

Continuing with my favorite subject, that being the temperature, the National Weather Service has made it official. Texas, which is enduring its worst single-year drought, its worst drought related agricultural losses and it worst wildfires, which have burned millions of acres and over 1,000 homes, has also endured the hottest June, July, August on record for the nation known as America.

The temperature average for that 3 month period was 86.8 degrees.

All this HOT talk has me in the mood to get cold. So, I think I will go swimming now, something I did not do yesterday.

Seattle Weather Babies

This past weekend broke temperature records in the Puget Sound zone of the Pacific Northwest.

In the photo you're looking at heat escapers at Brackett's Landing Park, by the Edmonds Ferry Dock, north of Seattle.

The temps got into the low 90s. In the Puget Sound region 3 days in a row with temps in the high 70s to low 90s is considered a major heat wave. Heat waves there rarely last longer than 3 days due to the heat causing cooler air and fog to roll in from the Pacific.

A former Los Angeles native, now Seattleite, is quoted in today's Seattle P-I, saying "People in Seattle seem to wilt after it gets above 75."

That is so true. I've only been up there during the summer one time since I've been acclimated to the Texas Heat, that being the summer of 2004. It was mid-July. The temperature was 78. I was cold, real cold. But the locals were in full whine mode about the blistering heat. Five days later I was at my sister's in Kent. That's a Seattle suburb. The temps that day were predicted to possibly break 100 for the first time in, west of the Cascades, Washington history. It only got to 99. Few people have air-conditioning on the west side of the mountains. It was miserable.

So, this weekend, on Saturday, the temperature, as measured at Sea-Tac Airport, tied the 1995 record at 91 degrees.

The weather service issued a heat advisory cautioning the elderly and children to drink a lot of water and avoid doing anything outdoors.

Meanwhile, in Texas, we've had a cold front blow in, with the low last night being 68 and the high today expected to only get to 95.

We are not weather babies in Texas.